This thresher, east of the elevators in Rowley, was manufactured by Nichols & Shepard Co. of Battle Creek, Mich. Its logo is pretty faded but is still readable, if not in its entirety. Like the other two at Rowley, this is a fairly large thresher with at least a 36" cylinder. Many larger threshers, such as this one, were owned by custom threshers which travelled about the country doing custom threshing threshing for farmers.
The
Nichols & Shepard Company was organized in 1848 by John Nichols, a practical moulder, and David Shepard, a machinist, in Battle Creek, Michigan. At one point Nichols & Shepard held about 10% of the threshing machine market. The company went on to build traction engines, threshers and their attachments, including stackers, self-feeders, grain weighers, etc. It became part of the Oliver Farm Equipment Company in 1929, which, in turn, became part of the White Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
Also on display at Rowley are a CPR caboose, a CPR speeder, a CPR boxcar and a McCormick Deering tractor hitched to a Minneapolis Moline manure spreader. The little hamlet of Rowley has restored its remaining three elevators, its train station and a handful of buildings on main street. That's about all there is left of Rowley.